As electronic apparatus configurations advance in performance and compactness, it becomes more difficult to control heat dissipation. As an example, this is particularly the situation in the portable computer technology where, as there is progress with greater performance, the heat generated by certain individual small components such as a semiconductor chip can generate so much heat in such a locallized place that it is becoming increasingly difficult to extract or otherwise control. Gains achieved in portability, component density and performance in electronic apparatus are usually accompanied by increasing difficulty in removing localized heat from an individual high heat producing component by simply using the traditional physical mechanisms of conduction, convection and radiation.
Thermoelectric cooling devices using the Peltier principle have been receiving increasing attention in the art. Such devices, that are usually made of a telluride compound, respond to an electrical current by producing a locallized cooler region. A number of structures and applications of the devices are described in an article by C. Wu, in Science News, Sep. 6, 1997, pages 152 and 153. Such devices however, at this stage of the art have not been employed in situations with high heat loads due to size and heat pumping efficiency. There are applications in low heat load environments such as sensing as shown as an example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,286.